DA, NFP concerned about matric pass quality

While the improved pass rate was good news, there are reasons to worry about the quality of the passes, opposition political parties said.

It was “concerning” that only 26% of students qualified for bachelor studies at a university, said Democratic Alliance spokeswoman for education Annette Lovemore yesterday in a statement.

Worsening the contrast, Lovemore said that of the 1.1 million pupils who enrolled in Grade One in 2001, only 511 152 took the matric examinations.

This means only 12% of pupils who enrolled in Grade One would eventually qualify for university.

“This raises serious questions about the ability of South Africa’s schools to produce learners who can stay in the system and emerge as successful matriculants,” Lovemore said.

National Freedom Party president Zanele Msibi also expressed reservations about the quality of the passes.

Msibi noted that math and science scores were still lagging. She said this was due to a lack of teachers in rural areas.

“We also concerned about the level of schooling in rural areas as rural schools are failing to attract enough competent maths and science teachers,” Msibi said.

She said the NFP would propose incentives be created to attract math and science teachers to rural schools.

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